Day 164: Portsmouth Harbour to Emsworth

Best bits: chatting to the Greyhound owners and patting the dogs, having personal cheerleaders

Worst bits: saying goodbye to Joyce

Distance: 19.6 miles

After having breakfast with Joyce it was time to say goodbye and get on our way.

The Sat nav took us to the Gosport side of Portsmouth Harbour so I had to get the ferry across again! Fortunately there was one ready to leave. This meant that I didn’t start walking until 11am.

After a short while I joined the City walls and walked along them with views over the Isle of Wight. A guy on his custom-made trike came past with his music playing. It’s was fantastic. He was really enjoying himself.

It must be Palm Sunday as there was a service going on outside with the clergy resplendent in their robes.

There’s a lot of work going on at Southsea to improve the sea defences. Fortunately the war memorial will be protected inside them.

After passing the pier, the esplanade opened up into a wide space with the shingle beach covered in patchy clumps of plants. It was really busy with families walking but unfortunately no one stopped me to ask me what I was doing.

The D day museum had a landing craft outside it along with a statue of Monty.

The parks are full of Sunday soccer matches lots of shouting and joisting for position. I watch the goalie save a shot which turned out to be the end of the match. It was good to see all the players shaking hands with each other.

I saw these flags flapping in the wind. They are part of the People’s memorial. There were many people sitting on benches next to a number of plaques and other memorials.

Cockleshell Island is a man-made structure in the middle of Langston harbour and was made for over wintering birds.

I stopped for some lunch at a Harvesters pub. Feeling refuelled I crossed Farlington Marshes and I saw a group of people walking dogs. I caught them up and spoke to Allan who was their leader. They kindly stopped for me to chat with them and Christine helped to distribute the hearts. Thanks Portsmouth Greyhound Social and chat and Portsmouth Area greyhound owners. I enjoyed giving the dogs a pat, especially Blue who insisted on being at the front.

Later on I made the decision to stay on the road for a while and then dropped down a lovely woodland path by the side of a river. The houses all had little bridges linking their gardens with the path. I made the right decision as this was due to meet the path I was supposed to be on. Can you see it?

The little village at Havant was beautiful with this lovely old Mill by the side of the marshland.

I was in a bit of a trance when I heard and saw some people cheering! I was a bit confused and looked behind me. Then Dave popped up from behind the cheerleaders. Dave had been telling Jackie and Tim about me just before I arrived and they gave me a perfect welcome.

Dave and I walked together to the pub in Emsworth where we had a cuppa. It was 5 pm and I still had another 7 miles to go but I was feeling a little cold and tired so decided to stop for today as we had had a late start. I was surprised to see how far I had actually walked by this point.